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04th Oct 2021

NICU nurse fired for posting photos of newborn with birth defect online

Laura Grainger

The baby was born with their intestines protruding from a hole in their abdominal wall.

A nurse in the US has been fired after posting pictures of a baby born with a birth defect to her personal social media account.

The nurse, who worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at a Miami hospital in Florida, posted photos of a newborn with gastroschisis, a birth defect of the abdominal wall that causes a baby’s intestines to protrude from a hole beside the belly button.

The photos were reportedly captioned, “My night was going great then boom!” and “Your intestines posed to be inside not outside baby! #gastroschisis”

According to a spokesperson for the hospital, hospital officials first learned of the incident on September 8 and immediately placed the nurse on administrative leave pending investigation.

The nurse, who had been working at the hospital since 2016, was then fired from her post on September 15.

Posting pictures of patients without consent is often considered a violation of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which exists to protect patient medical records and other personal health information.

In a statement to WFOR, the hospital said that all employees go through privacy policy training on a regular basis.

“Employees who violate these privacy rules, despite being educated, are subject to disciplinary action including suspension or termination,” it said.

“As soon as we learned of this potential breach, we immediately placed this employee under administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”